An MP has warned Boris Johnson could try and declare a state of emergency to force through a no-deal Brexit .
Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve said he was ‘astonished’ that ministers were talking about civil disorder breaking out if the UK doesn’t leave the EU on October 31.
He believes this may be a pretext to using an act that would allow the Prime Minister to declare a state of emergency
Such undemocratic tactics echo those used by Johnson’s supporter Donald Trump , when he tried to force an unwilling congress to fund his border wall with Mexico.
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Writing in the Daily Mail, Mr Grieve said: “The message coming from Downing Street is we have to leave by October 31 or there will be riots.
“My suspicion is that they may be planning to use the 2004 Civil Contingencies Act to suspend that law on the grounds that otherwise there will be riots before and afterwards.
“What I find most shocking is that ministers seem to be actively promoting this idea to justify invoking the Civil Contingencies Act and declaring a state of emergency.”
The MP for Beaconsfield, who recently had the Conservative whip removed, says while he finds talking of disorder ‘appalling’ he does not believe the tactic would work.
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The allegation comes the Prime Minister was accused of using the proroguing Parliament to ensure the October 31 deadline is met – a moved deemed by the Supreme Court this week as unlawful.
In response to Mr Grieve, Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith branded the theory as ‘the new project fear’.
“Having failed to dupe voters in the 2016 referendum campaign into believing they should be frightened of leaving the EU, the opponents of Brexit are now trying to make people frightened of Boris Johnson .
“Any Conservative or former Conservative who accuses the Government of deliberately whipping up fears of civil disorder as a pretext to get us out of the EU should hang their head in shame.”
